Salt Lake Comic Con FanXperience: KidCon 2014

Thanks to an excellent friend of mine, I ended up with a pair of tickets to SLC Comic Con. And kids under ten get in free -- hurrah! We decided all to go and just have fun.

I think this was the first conference/convention I've gone to with no aspirations of professional development. We walked the dealer's floor. We hung out at the KidCon area.

And KidCon was awesome.

There was a giant LEGO display from the Utah LEGO Users Group, including a spectacular Helm's Deep, the Orthnac, trains, the Avengers hovercraft, castles...it was fantastic. Someone else had a giant balloon sculpture. Disney princesses hosted tea parties. The Children's Museum had a booth where kids could transform painted toilet paper rolls into superhero bracers.

LEGO Orthnac

And there was great programing. The Leonardo did some science experients and explained how science was like super powers! The Hoogle zoo brought out some cool animals (owl, kestrel, snake, armadillo) and explained how animal adaptations were like super powers! There was something going on at one of the two stages about every half hour, it seemed.

The costumes were amazing, too. My kids adored all the Star Wars stuff, especially the guy with a real-sized, remote-controlled R2D2. I've never had the kids ask me to take their picture before.

I was told that this is the first time there's been kid programming at SLC Comic Con...which isn't a long wait, because this Comic Con debuted last year. Spectacularly. This year, there were more than 100,000 in attendance, making it the 3rd largest Comic Con in the nation, and the largest convention to be held in the state of Utah.

I'm glad we got to go and be a part of it. The kids are already designing costumes for next time.